Has there ever been a documented instance in the United States of a civilian shooting a cop, claiming it was self-defense… and winning?
Haven’t found one in the US, yet. But, I did find one in our neighbor to the north.
Around the turn of the (last) century, it happened in Ft. Collins, Colorado. Policeman Charles Brockman (my great grandfather) persued a man fleeing a knife fight. It was a warm night, and Brockman stripped off his coat, finally catching the man in blind alley, where the man shot Officer Brockman. Though initially convicted of murder, on appeal the man was able to prevail in his contention that he did not know officer brockman was a policeman, his coat being his only uniform, and was found not guilty based on this.
I don’t have access to the news clippings at the moment, so I can’t recall the man’s name…the clippings mostly refered to him as “the Mexican”
If you are ever in Ft. Collins, you can view a memorial display dedicated to Officer Brockman in the lobby of the new police station. Included is the Colt Army Special revolver he was carrying when he was shot, on loan from me.
Both of these seem to be a gray area, as the officers were genuinely performing lawful duties at the time and the shooters’ defenses were that they didn’t know the guys they shot were cops.
Was there ever a case in which a cop was shot in a fairly unambiguous case of self-defense? For instance, if the cop was actually committing a crime at the time?
(The case just above seems to be what I’m looking for; that is, if the evidence was convincing that the cops attacked first.)
I lived in San Diego when the Sagon Penn incident happened. The officer who survived the shooting was the one who prompted the incident and had a long history of abuse complaints. The cop who died was more of a innocent bystander although he did let the abuse happen.
I’m having some issues researching this one.
“Undercover” cop pulls a gun on a man and his wife; from one moving vehicle to the other. Man responds by pulling his own legally carried gun and firing at the (as yet unidentified as a) police officer, hitting him in the leg.
Both men were indicted on felony charges by grand juries.
Unfortunately, I can’t find the net results of the charges.
Ah, here is one, they dropped the charges against the officer. The other guy went on trial in July, but there is nothing on it.
Patrick Croy. (originally convicted and sentenced to death, overturned on appeal, acquitted on self defence grounds)
I think that if there are no grounds to prosecute, there would be precious few resources to investigate, i.e., man shoots cop, DA investigates, nothing to it, whole incident goes off into the ether.